turning to me. "You are crushed by the avalanche of ideas that have

rolled down upon you. What sort of future will this universal
education bring upon us unless we prevent its evils by replacing

public education in the hands of the religious bodies?"
These words were in harmony with a speech he afterwards made at the

elections when he refused his support to a man whose gifts would have
done good service to the royalist cause. "I shall always distrust men

of talent," he said.
Presently the count proposed that we should make the tour of the

gardens.
"Monsieur--" said his wife.

"Well, what, my dear?" he said, turning to her with an arrogant
harshness which showed plainly enough how absolute he chose to be in

his own home.
"Monsieur de Vandenesse walked from Tours this morning and Monsieur de

Chessel, not aware of it, has already taken him on foot over
Frapesle."

"Very imprudent of you," the count said, turning to me; "but at your
age--" and he shook his head in sign of regret.

The conversation was resumed. I soon saw how intractable his royalism
was, and how much care was needed to swim safely in his waters. The

man-servant, who had now put on his livery, announced dinner. Monsieur
de Chessel gave his arm to Madame de Mortsauf, and the count gaily

seized mine to lead me into the dining-room, which was on the ground-
floor facing the salon.

This room, floored with white tiles made in Touraine, and wainscoted
to the height of three feet, was hung with a varnished paper divided

into wide panels by wreaths of flowers and fruit; the windows had
cambric curtains trimmed with red, the buffets were old pieces by

Boulle himself, and the woodwork of the chairs, which were covered by
hand-made tapestry, was carved oak. The dinner, plentifully supplied,

was not luxurious; family silver without uniformity, Dresden china
which was not then in fashion, octagonal decanters, knives with agate

handles, and lacquered trays beneath the wine-bottles, were the chief
features of the table, but flowers adorned the porcelain vases and

overhung the gilding of their fluted edges. I delighted in these
quaint old things. I thought the Reveillon paper with its flowery

garlands beautiful. The sweet content that filled my sails hindered me
from perceiving the obstacles which a life so uniform, so unvarying in

solitude of the country placed between her and me. I was near her,
sitting at her right hand, serving her with wine. Yes, unhoped-for

joy! I touched her dress, I ate her bread. At the end of three hours
my life had mingled with her life! That terrible kiss had bound us to

each other in a secret which inspired us with mutual shame. A glorious
self-abasement took possession of me. I studied to please the count, I

fondled the dogs, I would gladly have gratified every desire of the
children, I would have brought them hoops and marbles and played horse

with them; I was even provoked that they did not already fasten upon
me as a thing of their own. Love has intuitions like those of genius;

and I dimly perceived that gloom, discontent, hostility would destroy
my footing in that household.

The dinner passed with inward happiness on my part. Feeling that I was
there, under her roof, I gave no heed to her obviouscoldness, nor to

the count's indifference masked by his politeness. Love, like life,
has an adolescence during which period it suffices unto itself. I made

several stupid replies induced by the tumults of passion, but no one
perceived their cause, not even SHE, who knew nothing of love. The

rest of my visit was a dream, a dream which did not cease until by
moonlight on that warm and balmy night I recrossed the Indre, watching

the white visions that embellished meadows, shores, and hills, and
listening to the clear song, the matchless note, full of deep

melancholy and uttered only in still weather, of a tree-frog whose
scientific name is unknown to me. Since that solemn evening I have

never heard it without infinite delight. A sense came to me then of
the marble wall against which my feelings had hitherto dashed

themselves. Would it be always so? I fancied myself under some fatal
spell; the unhappy events of my past life rose up and struggled with

the purely personal pleasure I had just enjoyed. Before reaching
Frapesle I turned to look at Clochegourde and saw beneath its windows

a little boat, called in Touraine a punt, fastened to an ash-tree and
swaying on the water. This punt belonged to Monsieur de Mortsauf, who

used it for fishing.
"Well," said Monsieur de Chessel, when we were out of ear-shot. "I

needn't ask if you found those shoulders; I must, however,
congratulate you on the reception Monsieur de Mortsauf gave you. The

devil! you stepped into his heart at once."
These words followed by those I have already quoted to you raised my

spirits. I had not as yet said a word, and Monsieur de Chessel may
have attributed my silence to happiness.

"How do you mean?" I asked.
"He never, to my knowledge, received any one so well."

"I will admit that I am rather surprised myself," I said, conscious of
a certain bitternessunderlying my companion's speech.

Though I was too inexpert in social matters to understand its cause, I
was much struck by the feeling Monsieur de Chessel betrayed. His real

name was Durand, but he had had the weakness to discard the name of a
worthy father, a merchant who had made a large fortune under the

Revolution. His wife was sole heiress of the Chessels, an old
parliamentary family under Henry IV., belonging to the middle classes,

as did most of the Parisian magistrates. Ambitious of higher flights
Monsieur de Chessel endeavored to smother the original Durand. He

first called himself Durand de Chessel, then D. de Chessel, and that
made him Monsieur de Chessel. Under the Restoration he entailed an

estate with the title of count in virtue of letters-patent from Louis
XVIII. His children reaped the fruits of his audacity without knowing

what it cost him in sarcastic comments. Parvenus are like monkeys,
whose cleverness they possess; we watch them climbing, we admire their

agility, but once at the summit we see only their absurd and
contemptible parts. The reverse side of my host's character was made

up of pettiness with the addition of envy. The peerage and he were on
diverging lines. To have an ambition and gratify it shows merely the

insolence of strength, but to live below one's avowed ambition is a
constant source of ridicule to petty minds. Monsieur de Chessel did

not advance with the straightforward step of a strong man. Twice
elected deputy, twice defeated; yesterday director-general, to-day

nothing at all, not even prefect, his successes and his defeats had
injured his nature, and given him the sourness of invalided ambition.

Though a brave man and a witty one and capable of great things, envy,
which is the root of existence in Touraine, the inhabitants of which

employ their native genius in jealousy of all things, injured him in
upper social circles, where a dissatisfied man, frowning at the

success of others, slow at compliments and ready at epigram, seldom
succeeds. Had he sought less he might perhaps have obtained more; but

unhappily he had enough genuinesuperiority to make him wish to
advance in his own way.

At this particular time Monsieur de Chessel's ambition had a second
dawn. Royalty smiled upon him, and he was now affecting the grand

manner. Still he was, I must say, most kind to me, and he pleased me
for the very simple reason that with him I had found peace and rest

for the first time. The interest, possibly very slight, which he
showed in my affairs, seemed to me, lonely and rejected as I was, an

image of paternal love. His hospitable care contrasted so strongly
with the neglect to which I was accustomed, that I felt a childlike

gratitude to the home where no fetters bound me and where I was
welcomed and even courted.

The owners of Frapesle are so associated with the dawn of my life's
happiness that I mingle them in all those memories I love to revive.

Later, and more especially in connection with his letters-patent, I
had the pleasure of doing my host some service. Monsieur de Chessel

enjoyed his wealth with an ostentation that gave umbrage to certain of
his neighbors. He was able to vary and renew his fine horses and

elegant equipages; his wife dressed exquisitely; he received on a
grand scale; his servants were more numerous than his neighbors

approved; for all of which he was said to be aping princes. The
Frapesle estate is immense. Before such luxury as this the Comte de

Mortsauf, with one family cariole,--which in Touraine is something
between a coach without springs and a post-chaise,--forced by limited

means to let or farm Clochegourde, was Tourangean up to the time when
royal favor restored the family to a distinction possibly unlooked

for. His greeting to me, the younger son of a ruined family whose